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Johnny Lawrence
John Lawrence, commonly referred as Johnny, is the secondary antagonist of the original Karate Kid and the main Protagonist/Anti-Hero of the Cobra Kai web series. He was the top student and later sensei of the Cobra Kai Dojo. Background Pre-''Karate Kid'' Johnny Lawrence, as a young kid, was very feeble and distant. He never knew his real father. Growing up with a harsh step-father, Johnny would often distance himself through use of his Walkman. However, one day while strolling home, Johnny came across a karate dojo by the name of Cobra Kai. Inside he found John Kreese teaching his students, which inspired Johnny greatly. He excitedly talked about the dojo with his mother and asked his stepfather if he could study karate, but Sid ridiculed him and relented only after Laura convinced him to let her son learn karate, thinking it could help him make friends. Johnny was enrolled into Cobra Kai and became a star student, winning the All-Valley tournament in 1982 and 1983 and not losing a single point in the latter. When Johnny and his friend, Dutch, attended a screening of Rocky III ''in the summer of their sophomore year, they sat behind a group of girls. Dutch threw milk-duds at the girls, before one of them, Ali Mills, stood up and confronted him. This was the first time Johnny Lawrence formally met Ali, and he soon went on to form a two-year relationship with her. Just shortly before the events of ''Karate Kid, Johnny and Ali got into a small fight and broke up. Johnny was very adamant about getting back with her, but never truly got his chance. ''Karate Kid (1984) On the last night of summer, Johnny and his friends from Cobra Kai drive their motorcycles to a beach party. He reminds his friends that he wants to be an "ex-degenerate" but immediately becomes jealous when he sees Ali with an unfamiliar boy. He drives down to confront Ali, but she rejects all his advances, and the two quickly get into a fight. Daniel LaRusso, seeing a chance to insert himself and stick up for Ali, intervenes. Johnny quickly pushes Daniel down, and the two get into a brawl against Ali's protests in which Johnny wins and leaves. Quite a bit later, during a Halloween school event, Johnny was in a bathroom stall, when Daniel put a hose over him and drenched him with water. Johnny, enraged, gathered his friends, and chased Daniel down the street, before cornering Daniel and beating him up. That's when, unexpectedly, Mr Miyagi showed up, defending Daniel and knocking Johnny out. Miyagi and Daniel later showed up to the Cobra Kai Dojo, requesting of John Kreese that his students leave Daniel be until the All-Valley Tournament. Agreeing, Johnny was forced not to lay a hand on Daniel, which allowed Daniel to torment Johnny until the day of the Tournament arrived. Once the day of the All-Valley Tournament finally arrived, Johnny rocked his way up to the finals, where he was pitted against his now-rival, Daniel LaRusso. While Johnny put up a good fight, especially with his opponent having an injured leg, Daniel ended up defeating Johnny using the Crane Technique. ''Karate Kid Part II (1986) Following the tournament, Johnny argues with John Kreese in the parking lot about how he did his best despite winning second place. Kreese, enraged by Johnny's loss, destroys his trophy and calls him a loser. Johnny insults Kreese, but Kreese quickly puts Johnny into a headlock. Johnny's friends unsuccessfully tried to save him from Kreese, before Mr Miyagi stepped in and defused the situation. Daniel and Miyagi then left Johnny in the parking lot. ''Karate Kid Part III (1989) Johnny appears in a montage at the beginning of the movie. He along with his friends most likely left Cobra Kai following Kreese's assault against him after his loss in the tournament as in the present day Kreese is revealed to have no students left at the Cobra Kai Dojo. Pre-''Cobra Kai In the past three decades in between Karate Kid and Cobra Kai, Johnny's life had gone downhill. He greatly detested his job as a home-improvement worker and moved to Reseda from Encino Hills. He fell victim to alcohol and was living life as a drunk. In the early 2000s, Johnny had a relationship with Shannon Keene, who gave birth to his son, Robby, but the relationship fell apart, and Johnny reportedly neglected Robby since birth. In the eyes of the world, he's basically a loser and a washout. At some point, Johnny's mother died. It is unknown when and how she died. In season 2, Johnny says his mother died not long before Robby was born. His grief over her death is why he said he wasn't present at Robby's birth. ''Cobra Kai (2018) Season 1 34 years after the events of The Karate Kid, Johnny's life has taken a turn for the worse. He moved out of his step dad's mansion in Encino Hills to Reseda. At the beginning of Cobra Kai he worked as a home-improvement worker but was fired after an argument with a customer. Afterwards, Johnny went to a convenience store where he encountered a group of high school students bullying his neighbor Miguel Diaz. The bullies provoke Johnny after they pushed Miguel into his Pontiac Firebird. After a brief fight in which Johnny defeats the posse of students, Johnny was arrested. The next night Johnny is at home drinking when he has a flashback of his high school days and goes out for a drive. While driving around the city at night he ends up at the All-Valley Sports Arena where he was defeated by Daniel LaRusso and was nearly choked to death by his own sensei, John Kreese. While having some more flashbacks, Yasmine who was with two other girls end up smashing into his Pontiac Firebird, an enraged Johnny attempts to chase after the teenagers but the crash disabled his car. His car ends up being towed to Daniel LaRusso's car dealership and for the first time in 34 years, he comes face to face with Daniel. While at the dealership he recognizes one of the teenagers who responsible for his visit there in the first place & discovers she's Daniel's daughter. After his visit at the dealership, Johnny decides to re-open Cobra Kai and his neighbor Miguel becomes his first student. After a few months with only having one student (Miguel), Cobra Kai becomes very popular and he gets a full dojo. Afterwards, Johnny decides to try to make amends with his son Robby. After he hears a commotion outside his apartment he discovers Daniel's cousin smashing his car with a bunch of biker goons. Enraged Johnny defeats the goons and makes Daniel's cousin tell him where he lives. Johnny goes to Daniel's house to confront him after almost getting into a fight Daniel gets Johnny a new car to compensate for his cousin's actions. During this, Daniel and Johnny begin to bond, but after Johnny discovers Daniel had been teaching his son karate Johnny gets angry and shoves Daniel into his karate trophies. After a night of binge drinking, Johnny goes to the All-Valley Tournament with his class. After a dominant performance from his class Miguel defeats his own son Robby in the championship round. After celebrating his victory at the dojo, a shadowy figure walks in who congratulates Johnny. The figure emerges and turns out to be his old sensei, John Kreese. Season 2 Johnny is shocked that Kreese is alive. He however is still angry at Kreese and even attacks him. Despite struggling at first he is able to get the better of Kreese, but shows mercy to him as he does not want to be him, while Kreese does not feel the same way and he kicks him. Kreese tries to convince them they should work together at the dojo but Johnny refuses as he is a better person and knows he is still evil. At the dojo, he scolds Miguel and Hawk for their cheap moves at the tournament, announces that cheating will no longer be tolerated, strips all his students to white belts, and forces Miguel and Hawk to do 50 push-ups. However, when Kreese fixes his second place trophy from 1984 All-Valley Tournament and apologizes to him for the way he acted Johnny forgives him and allows him to co-teach with him at the dojo. When Miguel and Hawk find out that Robby is Johnny's son, they believe he is being hard on them because they cheaply attack his son and even confront them who reveals that while Robby is his son, he does not tolerate cheating and tells them to mind their own business. However, he soon tells Miguel how badly he screwed up with Robby and that what he likes the most is training him. He even advises him not to be merciless like him as he paid the price for that. Under Johnny's nose, Kreese poisons several of Johnny's students minds particularly Hawk and gets them to be more ruthless. When Daniel confronts Johnny about destroying his dojo, Johnny tells him he does not know what he is talking about as he had nothing to do with that and was unaware Kreese ordered Hawk and some other of his students to do this. Johnny then tries to get one of them to reveal that they destroyed the dojo by punishing them, but no one cracks. Johnny however, gets a phone call which forces him to leave for the day but not before telling Kreese to run the dojo. Johnny goes to a hospital where he meets former Cobra Kai friends Bobby and Tommy and soon Jimmy. Tommy has been diagnosed with cancer. Knowing that Tommy does not have much time to live, the four spend the day hanging out so Tommy can spend his final day having good memories. Tommy last speaks to Johnny before his death the following morning. Johnny is saddened by Tommy's death. After finding out that Kreese has been poisoning his students minds and turning them into corrupt and vicious human beings, Johnny angrily forces Kreese to leave the dojo for good. Johnny develops a crush on Miguel's mom Carmen but is upset when she is seeing someone else. However, when he notices that her date is unfaithful, he beats him out and forces him not to see her again. He then asks her out and the two go on a date. However, when Daniel and his wife Amanda LaRusso come to the same restaurant and have to sit with Johnny and Carmen both Johnny and Daniel are unhappy. At first, they brag about their dojo's but after some time the two bond, joke around and appear to be getting along. When Daniel reveals Robby who is staying with him has enrolled him in school Johnny appreciates what he did. After Johnny comes home from his date someone knocks on his door. He thinks it's Carmen, but when he opens the door he is shocked to see Robby and a drunk Sam. He allows them to spend the night. He tells Robby the following morning that he will have to tell Daniel what happened, but Robby tells him not to and that he will take the fall. However, when Daniel knocks on Johnny's door Johnny opens it. Daniel asks if Sam is there to which Johnny replies that both Sam and Robby are there and he tells him to calm down which infuriates Daniel. Unhappy with his attitude, Johnny shuts the door. Daniel then kicks the door open and the two have a brief fight which is stopped by Robby and Sam. Daniel angrily takes Sam home. Johnny takes Robby to school which he appreciates. After Miguel is rushed to the hospital as a result of Robby kicking him off a railing at school Johnny goes to the hospital. At the hospital, Carmen blames Johnny for Miguel's injury and tells him she does not want to see him again, Johnny listens to a voicemail Miguel left earlier and peaks in Miguel's room who is lying unconscious causing him to cry and feel guilty. Johnny goes back to the dojo where he sees Kreese training several of his students. Kreese tells him he and a landlord made a agreement for him to take full ownership of the dojo. Several of Johnny's students are now training with Kreese, and Hawk blames him for Miguel's injury. Johnny angrily leaves the dojo. Johnny goes to the beach where he angrily throws his phone into the sand. He then spots the Cobra Kai logo on his car and in disgust, throws his keys into the car and walks away. Unbeknownst to him Ali whom he sent a Facebook message to has sent him a friend request. Fighting Style Johnny is a highly skilled and aggressive fighter. During his younger days he would often strike first, coming at his opponents with vicious combos. His main strength is offense, but does show solid defense which is evidenced during his fights with Daniel, Kyler and his gang, and Kreese. He is able to take on multiple opponents with relative ease. Personality Karate Kid Johnny was an arrogant bully who repeatedly bullied Daniel due to the latter becoming friendly with his ex-girlfriend Ali. During the finals of the all valley tournament however, he expresses shock when Kreese tells him to sweep Daniel's foot, which shows that Johnny does know when to draw the line. After losing to Daniel he personally hands Daniel the trophy and congratulates him, this showing he is a good sport. Cobra Kai Season 1 34 years after his defeat in the All-Valley tournament Johnny Lawrence is a bitter man. Divorced, working as a handyman and stuck in the past, Johnny barely understands the world of the 21st century. Smartphones and the internet baffle him and modern music nauseates him. Most galling of all, however, is Daniel LaRusso's success. Everywhere Johnny goes he is bombarded by ads for the LaRusso auto dealerships, serving as a constant painful reminder that his old rival has succeeded where he failed. Johnny's relationship with his son Robby is strained due to Johnny neglecting him his whole life, which has made Robbie resentful towards his father, and bent on doing everything he can to make Johnny suffer. While Johnny has expressed the desire to make amends with Robby and Robby himself did seem to want to work things out with Johnny after Shannon tells him Johnny wanted Robby to live with him, Robby goes back to disliking him after seeing Johnny hugging Miguel, though Johnny was unaware that Robby saw him. Despite their failed relationship Johnny does care about Robby, and Robby in turn does show that he does care for Johnny by accepting his apology following his loss in the all valley tournament. After Johnny begins training his neighbor Miguel he teaches him to be merciless. However, over the course of the first season of Cobra Kai he begins to care for Miguel and realize that he is the only person that has not given up on him. Miguel becomes something of a surrogate son for Johnny. In the 6th episode of the first season of The Cobra Kai it is revealed that when Johnny was a kid he was nice and caring but was often bullied and ridiculed by his stepfather Sid. In the ninth episode of the first season of ''Cobra Kai Johnny tells Daniel that he was often bullied by Sid. It is possible that Sid's poor treatment played a role in Johnny becoming an aggressive bully. Following the Cobra Kai winning the All Valley tournament, Johnny begins to feel guilty that his karate lessons have turned Miguel into a vicious and dirty fighter. Season 2 Johnny tries to be a better and more honorable person. His attempts include scolding Miguel and Hawk for their cheap moves in the tournament, announcing to his students that cheating won't be tolerated, advising Miguel not to me merciless like him, giving his old sensei Kreese a second chance as he believes he has changed, and beating up Carmen's unfaithful date. Johnny shows that he still cares about Miguel by telling him what he appreciates the most is training him, and advising him to be a better man than he ever was. He even develops a crush on Miguel's mom Carmen but becomes jealous of her date. However, after finding out her date is unfaithful he beats him up and forces him to never go near her again. He and Carmen then go on a date. After Kreese returns, Johnny wants nothing to do with him but after the latter fixes his second place trophy and apologizes for the way he treated him, Johnny, believing he has changed allows him to co-teach with him at the dojo. However, under his nose Kreese poisons several of johnny's students' minds and makes them more ruthless. When Johnny finds out he kicks Kreese out. He still cares about Robby even though the latter is still angry with him. He even tells Miguel how badly he screwed up with Robby. However, when Robby's girlfriend am gets drunk at a party Robby takes him to Johnny house where they spend the night. The following morning Johnny takes him to school. They seem to be on good terms. Unfortunately everything comes crashing down for him in the end when Miguel shows mercy to Robby causing Robby to kick him of a railing, severely injuring him, which breaks Johnny's heart and causes Carmen to break up with him as a result, Kreese takes over the dojo and kicks Johnny out, and several of Johnny's students have joined Kreese and accused Johnny of Miguel's injury. Johnny now feels like he has failed. Johnny felt bad and showed a lot remorse what he did to Miguel and he made him into a bigger bully than him. Gallery 274px-Tumblr ljdgq0Uz2x1qgz3gvo1 500.jpg Johnny lawrence.png Daniel vs johny1.png Jlawrence.jpeg Screen Shot 2018-09-10 at 5.31.09 pm.png|Johnny As A Kid Screen Shot 2019-04-25 at 9.01.26 am.png Johnny CobraKai S2 004.png Johnny CobraKai S2 005.png References Category:Antagonists Category:Cobra Kai Members Category:Characters Category:Cobra Kai Characters Category:Karate Kid Characters Category:Karate Kid Part II Characters Category:Males Category:Protagonists Category:Villains Category:Heroes Category:Former Villains